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John Bridgeland
is President & CEO of Civic Enterprises, a public policy development firm. His work on the high school dropout crisis helped bring national attention to the issue, with the TIME cover story “Dropout Nation” and two Oprah Winfrey shows prompted by his report, The Silent Epidemic. Bridgeland is also Vice Chairman of Malaria No More, a non-profit launched at the White House Summit on Malaria that is bringing new resources, advocacy and grassroots support to ending malaria in Africa by 2015. Bridgeland helped develop the Centennial Initiative and Challenge to strengthen our 391 national parks and serves on the National Parks System Advisory Board. He also was a leader in ServiceNation, a presidential forum with Senators Barack Obama and John McCain and a summit that showcased a 10-point plan to increase community, national and international service opportunities, which informed the Serve America Act by Senators Edward Kennedy and Orrin Hatch. The Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act was signed into law in 2009. For his work in promoting the national service agenda, Bridgeland was selected as a 2008 NonProfit Times Executive of the Year.
Previously, Bridgeland served as Assistant to the President of the United States and the first Director of the USA Freedom Corps. In that role, he coordinated more than $1 billion in domestic and international service initiatives and worked with non-profits, corporations and schools to foster a culture of service in the aftermath of September 11, 2001. Prior to that, Bridgeland served as Director of the Domestic Policy Council at the White House, where he coordinated policy on more than 100 issues. Bridgeland began his professional career by practicing law in the New York and Paris, France offices of Davis Polk & Wardwell. He also served as Chief of Staff and Counsel to former U.S. Congressman Rob Portman. Bridgeland graduated with honors in government from Harvard University and received his J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law.
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